Descriptive SummaryRepositorySwarthmore College Peace CollectionCreator
War Resisters LeagueTitleWar Resisters League Records Inclusive DatesDates of records 1995-dateCall Number
DG 040Language of Materials
Materials in English Extent

AbstractThe War Resisters League is a pacifist organization whose members are against all war. Witnessing the establishment of the War Resisters' International in Europe in 1921, and sensing a need for a similar organization in the United States, Dr. Jessie Wallace Hughan established the War Resisters League as an independent organization.The War Resisters League membership pledge, which has remained essentially unchanged since its inception, reads: "The War Resisters League affirms that war is a crime against humanity. We therefore are determined not to support any kind of war, international or civil, and to strive non-violently for the removal of all causes of war."The League seeks to end war and social injustice through pacifist and nonviolent tactics.

Administrative InformationRestrictions to AccessNoneUsage Restrictions
NoneAlternate Form of Material
Yes, Reels 20 & 21 (War Resisters League News 191967 & 191968)Acquisitions Information
Gift of War Resisters League 1994-1999, 2001, 2004, 2005 Finding aid for earlier accessions (1923-1994)Processing InformationThisfinding aid prepared by Wendy Chmielewski, August 2007. Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], in the War Resisters League Records (DG 040), Swarthmore College Peace CollectionCopyright NoticeCopyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law

Online Catalog Headings These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online library/archival catalogs.See tripod record

Historical BackgroundAlthough the War Resisters League declares its official birthday year as 1923, its roots go back to 1915 when Jessie Wallace Hughan, Tracy D. Mygatt, and John Haynes Holmes founded the Anti-Enlistment League to solidify protest against U.S. participation in World War I. Witnessing the establishment of the War Resisters' International in Europe in 1921, and sensing a need for an organization where war resisters of all persuasions, regardless of gender or religious convictions, could join together, Dr. Hughan formed the Committee for Enrollment Against War under the auspices of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. In 1923 Hughan established the War Resisters League as an independent organization.

The War Resisters League membership pledge, which has remained essentially unchanged since its inception, reads: "The War Resisters League affirms that war is a crime against humanity. We therefore are determined not to support any kind of war, international or civil, and to strive non-violently for the removal of all causes of war."

During World War II, War Resisters League especially supported absolutist conscientious objectors who protested any form of military support, including alternative service. In 1948, it helped found the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors to further aid all COs. It has continually lent its resources to the causes of war tax protest, draft resistance, and civil rights.

War Resisters League encouraged civil disobedience against civil defense drills in the early 1960s by sponsoring the Civil Defense Protest Committee. It encouraged tax resistance as the Indochinese conflict escalated, and formed War Tax Resistance in 191969 to protest all taxes that benefited the military. In the 191970s, War Resisters League supported Campaign Freedom and the United Campaign for Peace in Indochina, both efforts to help improve conditions and free political prisoners in Vietnam. It helped focus nationwide attention on nuclear protest and civil liberties by organizing the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice in 1976.

War Resisters League is affiliated with War Resisters' International and the International Peace Bureau. Throughout its existence, it has worked closely with many other peace organizations, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the American Friends Service Committee, and the American Civil Liberties Union. In 1958, it helped start the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA), which shared its headquarters and finally merged with War Resisters League in 191968.

The League has sought to promote pacifist and nonviolent tactics through various periodicals. In 1956, War Resisters League helped start Liberation, an independent monthly dealing with nuclear testing, civil rights, socialism, and nonviolent direct action. it was discontinued in 1977. WIN, a widely read peace periodical begun by the New York Workshop in Nonviolence, has received War Resisters League support. The League publishes its own bimonthly magazine, War Resisters League News. Its annual Peace Calendar reached annual sales of 20,000 in 1980.

War Resisters League is presently headquartered at 339 Lafayette Street in New York City with one regional office in Norwich, CT. There are or have been three branch offices, located in San Francisco, CA (War Resisters League-West), Austin, TX (War Resisters League South Central), and Chapel Hill, NC (War Resisters League Southeastern), with numerous local War Resisters League groups across the country.

A more complete history of War Resisters League, produced for its 1950th Anniversary, can by found in Series B, Subseries I, History.

Collection Overview
Records in these accessions are unprocessed and in the order in which they were received from the offices of the War Resisters League.
Items removed:
-photographs and negatives taken by Karl Bissinger

Archived web sites of the War Resisters League

These web sites were created by the national office of the War Resisters League. Beginning in 2001 the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archives (IA) cached War Resisters League's web site. Please check both URLs listed as there are some each may list different dates on which web sites were saved.

The links are provided here for the convenience of researchers interested in the history of War Resisters League's web presence. The Swarthmore College Peace Collection has no control over the web sites or how they are saved by IA.

Dates of web sites marked with an * indicate a change in that site from the last saved web site.

This accession contains the files of War Resisters League chair and staff member, David McReynolds. The materials came from War Resisters League office in New York, but contained War Resisters League office files and some of McReynolds personal papers. The personal files were almost all correspondence. See the checklist for the Papers of David McReynolds for more information. The rest of the accession has been placed with the War Resisters League records. Researchers should be aware that McReynolds did not always separate out his personal and office correspondence. Those interested in the War Resisters League records for this period should also check McReynolds personal files in this accession.

Accession 99A-051Box 1
Local Organizing: Nebraska
Columbia/War Resisters League
Regional organizing War Resisters League/West 1988
Local Organizing: St. Louis, MO War Resisters League
St. Louis, MO War Resisters League, 1990
Kansas
California Sacramento Peace Center War Resisters League
Santa Barbara War Resisters League
Florida
Atlanta, GA
Indiana
Local Organizing: Minnesota Twin Cities War Resisters League 1974-1980
New Brunswick (NJ)
New Mexico
Local Organizing: War Resisters League Pittsburgh
New Yorkers for Peace and Justice
Local Organizing: Dallas, Texas, War Resisters League
Rochester, War Resisters League 1980

Box 2
St. Louis, MO War Resisters League
Triangle area, War Resisters League
Hawaii
New Jersey: War Resisters League local Bergen and Passaic Counties
Hawaii
Mobile, Alabama
Muncie/Ball State, 1980
New Paltz
Ozark and REA
Local Organizing: Utah War Resisters League
Foothills War Resisters League Fort Collins, CO June 14, 1980
War Resisters League/SE 1988
Local Organizing: War Resisters League Northeast Piedmont, NC
War Resisters League/SE 1988, 1986
Regional organizing: War Resisters League Southeast
Regional organizing: War Resisters League West 1987
Regional organizing: War Resisters League West 1986

Box 3
War Resisters League Strategy Retreat
Nonviolent Activist
War Resisters League Fundraising/ Gay and Lesbian Community Rights
Military Resistance: Gulf War
Organizers Training Program
Strategic Planning Com.

Box 8Smithsonian floorplan and placards Bulk mailing permitLiving poemsWRL 75th anniversary conference75th anniversaryDisarm Space! An organizer's kitStop War Toys Campaign PacketThe War That Could Have Been Avoided KOSOVO: Costs and Consequences50 Years of Nuclear Terror 50 Years of ResistanceHigh School Organizing PacketDaring to Change: Perspectives on Feminism and NonviolenceRevolution and Nonviolence in a War-torn RegionThe Hope of Never AgainAn Organizing Packet for YouthPeaceThe Violence of Racism and Militarism: The US and South AfricaBread and Puppet News 1968 and HallelujahHandbook for Nonviolent ActionMid-Peninsula Conversion ProjectIdaho National Engineering Lab projectsWRL - Art for Social Change "The Tragedy"

Accession 2013-037Box 1
War Resisters League Literature 1970-1975
Miscellaneous War Resisters League Papers 1970-1079
War Resisters League Literature 1980-1981
War Resisters League Demo Fliers
1985 National Conference. Denton, TX
New York City Guides
Conference Registrations
Conference Registrations Two

Box 6 of 13 [Acc. 2013-039]
Day without the Pentagon, 1998
Day without the Pentagon, speakers at rally
Day without the Pentagon, DC steering committee
Day without the Pentagon, collected press clips
Media Proposal for Day without the Pentagon
Day without the Pentagon, 1998-Media
Day without the Pentagon, 1998-Listings and Press
Caravan Websites
Day without the Pentagon-college contracts
Day without the Pentagon-Permits
Day without the Pentagon-Park Service Permits
Day without the Pentagon-Pledge of Nonviolence
Day without the Pentagon-Bread and Puppet
Day without the Pentagon-Nonviolence Training
Day without the Pentagon-Odetta
Day without the Pentagon-Betty's Flyers
Day without the Pentagon-Puerto Rican Flyers
Day without the Pentagon-Staff
Day without the Pentagon-Tactical Manual
Day without the Pentagon-Originals
Day without the Pentagon-Boston
Day without the Pentagon-October 19, 1998 Civil Disobedience
Day without the Pentagon-collage of clips
Day without the Pentagon-Scenario development
Day without the Pentagon-mailings
Day without the Pentagon-NYC

Box 7 of 13 [Acc. 2013-039]
Day without the Pentagon-press web coverage
Day without the Pentagon-Local organizers
Day without the Pentagon- NYC 339 letter
Day without the Pentagon, 1999 Training Programs
Day without the Pentagon, 2000
Day without the Pentagon, NYC 2000
Day without the Pentagon, dollar bill flyer
Day without the Pentagon-Alternative funds